LOC Gives Ackatronics 7-Day Ultimatum

The Local Organising Committee of Ghana 2008 has given Ackatronics seven days to withdraw all advertisements and other unofficial linkages made to the Ghana 2008, which, in the view of the LOC, have the intent of ambushing the marketing rights of the tournament.

The LOC has further demanded an unqualified public apology from Ackatronics for the contravention of such a fundamental rule of marketing, or allow the LOC to use the law to seek the appropriate redress.

A statement issued by the Chief Operating Officer of the LOC, Mr Magnus Rex Danquah, noted with great deal of disapproval a half-page advertisement placed by Ackatronics on page 23 of the December 4, 2007, edition of the Daily Graphic.

The statement further stated that using the name of the Ghana CAN 2008 for the offer of free tickets amounted to ambush marketing and an outright disregard of the regulations that safeguarded the interest of the oganisers and partners of the 26th MTN Cup of Nations tournament.

“The company must certainly be aware that such illegally deliberate negligence of the marketing rules and regulations that are infused into event organisation as shown by Ackatronics's blatant display of the advertisement using the name of an event with which it has no legal connection, cannot be countenanced”, it stressed.

“We should all be particularly concerned about the issue of piracy and ambush marketing, which are considered serious disincentive to local entrepreneurship.”